Fujifilm Finepix E550 6.12MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom

Rating:
Summary: If you're even THINKING about buying this camera...
Review: ...Here's EVERTHING you should know. (To skim read: read bold statements). I got this camera for an early Christmas gift last year. I've used it on vacation (GREAT VACATION CAMERA!) Let's get right into it...

>>>Design--the design is sleek and sophisticated. Silver and shiny but FINGER PRINTS WON'T SHOW. LIGHT WEIGHT. 2" SCREEN DISPLAY. all great things about the E550. pics can be up to 12 MEGAPIXELS!!! AMAZING!

>>>Start up, shut off---EXTEMELY FAST CAMERA. Start up is about 1.5 seconds. Great for Point and Shoot. Just pop in two AA batteries and a mem chip and you're set. BATTERIES ARE FINISHED WITHIN 45 MINUTES! not good but excusable.

Shooting Modes---all on a dial at the top
>>Night- for night shots. Automatically sets a long exposure so it can take all the light but the shots come out extremely blurred most of the time. NOT GOOD*.
>>Sports- for shots of movement. Automatically sets a short exposure but the scene usually ends up being too dark. NOT GOOD.
>>Landscape >>>> nothing special about either
>>Portrait >>>>>> both pretty normal to me. NOT GOOD.
>>Auto- BEST FOR POINT AND SHOOT. Lighting gets a tad greener that naturally but that's acceptable. VERY GOOD.
>>P-(Programmed) goes to a preset shutter speed and a certain aperture. Handy if you plan on taking pictures from the same place over and over again. SOMETIMES HANDY.
>>S-(Shutter Speed Priority) USED THE MOST OF ALL. The system it uses...you select a S.S. and the camera selects an aperture. If the aperture number is red, you have to change the S.S. EXTREMELY COOL TO USE. MAKES IT SIMPLE TO TAKE GREAT NON-BLURRED PICS.
>>A-(Aperture Priority) sometimes helpful for there are less Ap. settings than S.S. settings so it's faster to find the right combo except sometimes WHEN USING THE A_PRIORITY YOU CAN'T FIND THE CORRECT COMBINATION.
>>M-(Manual) you can choose both the Aperture and the Shutter Speed--handy for your own special pictures with weird effects. can be real cool.
>>Movie- THIS CAMERA CAN TAKE GREAT VIDEO--THOUGH NOT ENOUGH TO FILL A TV, IT CAN FILL THE SPACE ON A COMPUTER MONITOR. VIDEO CAN LAST FOR A SURPRISING AMOUNT OF TIME! Can be great for precious moments but NOT GOOD WITH SOUND!

>>>Menu Features---on the menu button
>>Timer-for TEN SECONDS SO YOU CAN GET IN THE PICTURE TOO, two seconds so you don't shake the camera by pushing the shutter button**, and off if you had it on (but after each pic, the timer shuts off, can be annoying if you want to take more than one).
>>WB-(White Balance) pretty much the lighting. AUTOMATIC LIGHTING, programmed light (haven't figured that one out yet) SUNSHINE, CLOUDY, LIGHT BULB LIGHT (indoors, most common) and three others that always make everything a different shade of red (strange). CAN'T CHANCE WHITE BALANCE WHEN YOU'RE IN CERTAIN MODES.
>>Focusing- Auto focusing: CENTER FOCUS, MULTI AREA (<< most common), AREA--YOU CAN SHIFT THE BRACKET IN THE CENTER OF THE SCREEN TO ANYWHERE SO IT'LL FOCUS ON WHAT YOU WANT--, Continuous, the camera will continue to focus on things (usually IT'LL FOCUS WHEN THE SHUTTER BUTTON IS PUSHED HALFWAY DOWN) and will use up a lot of battery, even faster! Manual focusing: Um...I don't know how to do it. STICK WITH AUTO FOCUS!
>>Photometry-Average, spot, or Multi, I have absolutely no idea what they change...I assume that multi is the best.
>>Continuous Shooting-Top 4 (HOLD THE SHUTTER BUTTON DOWN AND WILL TAKE FOUR PICTURES CONSECUTIVELY, VERY COOL) final 4 (hold the S.B. down and it'll save the LAST four pics you take, a little weird but kinda cool) bracketing (takes three pics consecutively under different settings, kinda neat but it has never helped anything) and 40 frames (TAKE UP TO 40 CONSECUTIVE FRAMES BACK TO BACK AT 2 MEGAPIXELS, pretty cool)
>>Options- change a few settings (not to do with the pictures) like brightness of the screen and volume of THE BEEPING (which SHOULD BE TURNED ALL THE WAY DOWN can get pretty annoying, each click of a button is a beep!)
>>Bracketing- change the range of something, I have no idea NOT HELPFUL
>>Sharpness- Hard (For distance photos) normal, soft (closer up)
>>Flash- adjusts the brightness; don't really need to be adjusted because THE FLASH IS ALWAYS EXTREMELY BRIGHT! BUT USUALLY UNNECESSARY***!

>>>Flash and Marco---change by pressing the buttons around the menu button
>>Flash- (Press the button of the left side of the menu) change the flash between...off, automatic, RED-EYE REDUCTION (this WORKS REAL WELL), Slow Synch flash (flashes right at the beginning of a long exposure usually) Slow Synch+ red eye reduction (mixes the two) IT WILL NOT FLASH UNLESS YOU PRESS THE FLASH BUTTON SO THE LIGHT BULB JUMPS OUT. IT WILL TELL YOU IF YOU SHOULD HAVE A FLASH.
>>Marco- (Right side)for close up, on/off. doesn't change much.

>>>Special FujiFilm Modes---(not real special)
>>Quality- 0.3MP (for tons of pictures) 2MP, 3MP, 6MP (the one I use the most...YOU CAN TAKE 84 PICTURES AT 6 MEGAPIXELS ON A 128mb xD PICTURE CARD 12MP, 12MP fine...A STUNNING 12 MEGAPIXEL CAMERA, THAT PRINTS UP TO 20" x 15"!!!! THAT'S HUGE and it's FINE so you can't see the pixels.
>>ISO-(Light Sensitivity)80, 100, 200, 400, and 800 at 2MP nothing special
>>COLOR- standard, chrome (saturated color, cool) Black & White

>>>Lense---
>>Zoom--OPTICAL ZOOM IS 4X!! REALLY GOOD! digital zoom (do not use) is 6x. Lense extends from camera about two inches.
>>Attachments--PRETTY MUCH NOTHING YOU CAN ADD ON THAT'S CHEAPER THAN $100!!! It sucks!

>>>WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE LCD DISPLAY, YOU CAN SEE WHAT THE PICTURE IS GOING TO LOOK LIKE. YOU CAN ALSO SEE ALL OF THE SETTINGS. WHEN YOU PUSH THE S.B. YOU CAN SEE IT FOCUS AND ALL THE SETTING DISAPPEAR. EXTREMELY NICE!!!!<<<

>>>Reviewing the Pictures--- you can flip and small switch to change from taking pictures to viewing them. easy to switch.
>Display--push to change from seeing the picture with the DAY/TIME to seeing just the picture, to seeing nine pictures (good for browsing)
>+/- push that button to see the specifications of the photo.
>Menu Items--
>>Erase-single frame, all frames
>>Protect-single frame, all frames
>>Playback-four modes for viewing all your pictures in a slide show (NOT GOOD)
>>Voice memo-USELESS, I think. You SHOULD be able to remember the picture, you took it!
>>Trimming-EXTREMELY USEFUL!!! YOU CAN CROP A PHOTO BY ZOOMING IN AND SHIFTING THE IMAGE, VERY NICE TO USE. IT WILL TELL YOU HOW BIG THE AFTER-IMAGE WILL BE
>>Options-same as before the other options...

>>>it'll tell you if you get low batteries<<<
>>>comes with hand strap<<<
>>>comes w/ 16mb...pretty much completely worthless <<<
>>>comes with two batteries+charger<<<GOOD!
Keep in mind the 12.3 megapixel is from the super CCD sensor which means the image is interpolated(pixels are added)

*what happens with a long exposure, for instance, cars: if you're in a car taking pictures of the lights of other cars as you pass them, set the exposure real long. the lights will trail behind the car and the effect looks really cool and professional.

WHAT I RECOMMEND WITH PURCHASE---

1. A TRIPOD, TALL NOT TABLE, BECAUSE WHEN PUSHING THE SHUTTER BUTTON CAMERA TENDS TO SHAKE CAUSING BLUR
2. A CARRYING CASE FOR ALL YOU STUFF
3. >TWO< 128MB xD PICTURE CARDS
4. EXTRA SET OF BATTERIES AND >ANOTHER< CHARGER
5. USB PORT COMPUTER CONNECTION, MAKES TRANSFER EXTREMELY QUICK!

BOTTOM LINES: GREAT, GREAT CAMERA. FOR THOSE WHO LIKE TO EXPIRIMENT WITH PHOTOGRAPHY. THIS CAMERA HAS THE MOST FEATURES OF ALL THE CAMERAS I'VE SEEN! IT'S THE BEST CAMERA YOU CAN BUY.

DON'T SETTLE FOR ANYTHING LESS THAN THE FUJIFILM E550!

~T*RIN

Rating:
Summary: Great Camer
Review: I have try many other camer. I finally settle with this as upgrade from my 2megapixel fuji finepix 2600 which is a great beginner camera.

Pro:
use double AA battery which you can get anywhere. I do recommend use the nimh rechargable batter. They are cheap anyway compare to those custom battery.

6 MP for less than $300 after rebate.(Wow)
Good Picture quality.

Con: a little bulky. Expensive xd card. Battery runs out fast with flash. But this is true for all camera anyway.

My experience with the camera:
I bought a 512 md xd card make by SankDisk right after I got the camer. However, most my indoor picture turns to very dark. I spend a lot of time to read the manual and learn many adjustment. Since I am not a professional photographer, I very have no idea I am doing. At the moment, I am very pissed with the camera. I was about to throw it at the floor. Finally, one day, the xd picture suddenly unreadable by the xd card reader. I went to circuit city and return the sanddik xd picture and I saw the 128 md fuji xd memory card (made by fuji) on sale. I bought it and want give the camera last try. Oh Boy, what a different. All the sudden, my picture turn out very clear for my indoor and night picture. I don't know why. I suggest stick with Fuji brand xd picture card for this camera. I have use the auto mode, with auto iso with geat picture. For very dim light indoor picture, I manually set the iso to 400, I got very clear picture.

Note: higher the iso, the more noise on the picture. Howerer, if you are printing, 4x6, you probably won't notice the noise with iso 400.

I love this camera now.


Rating:
Summary: Almost perfect camera
Review: I use this camera mostly indoor with flash. I've taken only about 100 photos with it so far. What I like:
- fast start
- uses AA batteries
- decent flash pictures at wide angle
- 2" LCD
- simple to use menu
- no shutter lag and quick postview

Don't like:
- slow flash recycle time
- flimsy popup flash
- expensive xD picture card (but it's a one-time cost)
- when zoomed to telephoto, aperture becomes so small that most flash photos are underexposed. I end up moving closer to the subject to take flash photos at wider angle.
- often I would notice a large patch of black object in a photo. It seems dark objects are unusually black, or color seems missing somewhere. Nobody else mentioned this; is it just me?

There are no red-eyes in the photos I took. However, all my subjects so far have black eye color, so I can't say how well this works on lighter color eyes. It is defintely better than my old canon S230 (it gives everyone red eyes).

I put two 2000mAh NiMH in the camera three weeks ago and after taking 100 photos (more than half of them with flash) I still haven't had to recharge them yet. The camera comes with 2300mAh NiMH -- higher capacity than the ones I'm using.

Rating:
Summary: Too good to be true?? NO!
Review: I was very skeptical of this camera. Since Fuji is not considered one of the "top" brands, and this camera has so much for the money. But I went ahead and ordered it, and have not regretted it for one minute! Unless it disinegrates in my hands in 6 months, this is an awesome camera!

PROS:
*Obviously, the 6.3MP (not 6.12) and 4x zoom
*2" crystal clear LCD - so much better than 1.5"!
*Long range flash - I think the manual says up to 10', but I had no problems even at about 15'.
*Super fast start up - takes <2 seconds.
*Will take standard AA batteries - they only last about an hour, but if your waiting to recharge, they'll get you through.
*I like the size - it's a little too big for a pocket, but it gives me something to hold on to. I looked at a Canon Elph and it just felt too small!
*Very solid. Doesn't "feel" cheap at all.

CONS:
*The flash takes FOREVER to recharge! In sunlight, the camera is ready to take another picture in <2 seconds, but if you're using the flash, be prepared to wait about 7 seconds!
*I'm not real crazy about the pop-up flash. I'm afraid it will break.
*It might be like this on all cameras, but the manual wasn't very useful. On advanced features, it would tell me things like HOW to change the aperture, but not WHY I would need to do that. But for normal photography, the camera is very easy to use.

I have no idea why this camera is so inexpensive (I got it for $325 from an internet company). It must just be that Fuji has not made a name for itself yet in the digital camera field. But I highly recommend it!

Rating:
Summary: Fuji E550 vs Sony DSC W1
Review: Ok.. I wanted a camera that was light, could fit in my pocket, used the AA batteries or the NIMH AA batteries, and of course could take great pictures. The Canon A95 almost fits the bill, but it used 4 AA batteries while the Fuji and Sony use 2 AA batteries, and is a little too big and heavy.
Anyway, here are the Pros and Cons of each camera.

Fuji E550 Pros:
Great, very sharp pictures. (6 MP) I blew them up to 8 x 10 on my Epson Photo 700 printer and they were stunning! I have never seen such great output on my printer. The Sony DSC W1 is not even in the same league -- just look at the head shots on the Steves Digicam site and you will see how much sharper this camera is between the E550 and the DSC W1. As far as color, great color saturation It should be noted that all Fuji cameras tend to shift more toward blue, the Sony shifts more toward green (as do most digital cameras including Canon). Some say this makes grass not look green enough, but to my eye, the grass just looks like a darker green, it still looks green though on a brite sunny day. Skin tones look fine. I shot a pumpkin on the grass in bright daylight. The Sony shot had a yellow-orange pumpkin with light green grass, the Fuji shot had a very orange pumpkin with darker green grass. The Fuji shot was much sharper. I like the Fuji shot much better. Some say that the 6MP default is too compressed, I just don't see it. And the default compression allows for more pictures on the 512 XD card (over 300 I think).

2 A lens with great range - from 32 mm to 130 mm - goes wider and longer than most others. It is responsive and fast.The DSC-W1 is a 3 x zoom.

3. A comfortable grip and a large 2 inch screen

4. Lots of modes and options for the photographer to play with-
Program mode, shutter priority, aperture priority, sport mode
(the DSC-W1 doesnt have any of these) It should be noted that the sport mode is fair at best and does not compare to a real SLR such as the Digital Rebel), night, portrait mode, flash adjustment, white balance, program shift, continous autofocus, etc, etc..

Fuji E550 cons

The screen is practically unusable in brite sunlight. It washes out in the sun, images turn too bright and white and washout, you have to use the viewfinder to take your picture in many instances and then review it on the screen by switching to playback mode and cup your hand over the screen . The Sony screen works fine and you press button to instantly review your picture.

There is no autofocus lamp on the camera. Under low light the camera frequently cannot focus. In other words, you might have to turn on a light. However, indoor shots always come out better if you turn on more background lights.

The flash does not always work properly indoors - I am not sure why. The pictures sometimes have to be reshot because the flash did not fire. Sometimes I have to change my position for the flash to fire. However, when it does fire, the pictures look fine (and sharp) The Sony fires correctly all the time and has the autofocus lamp to autofocus fine. It also has the instant review button of the shot you took.. which is handy.
The Sony unfortunatly always chooses 1/50 of a second when you turn on your flash, the Fuji chooses 1/60 of a second. That may make it a litter harder to get a clear picture on the Sony.
The Fuji screen is also harder to use in lower light, but it is still more usable than in bright sunlight.

The Fuji has a pop-up flash, it tells you you need to pop up the flash, it does not do it automatically (a small annoyance). The Sony flash is built in.

The build quality of the Sony seems better- a more solid camera, well built. The Fuji seem flimsier, the pop-up flash may perhaps break one day.

And my wife will probable hate the Fuji because of the screen being pretty much unusable in bright sunlight and the darn camera flash and autofocus does not always work well indoors under low light. Of course she still likes our old Canon 2 MP S10 camera (which I was upgrading from). So.... how to resolve this...... Here is my conclusion:

I'm going to return the Sony.. I would have kept it it a heartbeat if it could take the incredible picture the Fuji can but unfortunately it just can't. And for me, it's about how much fun I can have with the camera and how tack sharp and colorful the pictures are that it produces.

I'll put up the the shortcomings of the Fuji E550 --- and Fuji, if you read this review...... fix those shortcomings and you won't be able to make enough cameras because these will fly off the shelf.

And my wife? I'll let her stick the the Canon S10. It's built well and will last for years to come.

Loren



Rating:
Summary: Build Quality Not Up to Spec
Review: The spec of this camera is very good, but the build quality leaves much to be desired, such as:

1.) Flimsy pop-up battery. The button is shallow to pop-up the battery and the flash mechanism is built of flimsy plastic. When you close it it latches only to one side leaving one side higher than the other. On one camera, the flash stopped mid-way from full extension. This was the third camera that had some issue with the flash. IMHO, this flash is geared for failure..........I hop on FUTURE cameras, Fuji will have the flash built-in--no moving parts please--and please no cover sliding doors like other cameras like Olympus or Canon (which also fail)!

2.) USB/AV port has an UNHINGED plastic cover. When you upload your pics, the plastic cover has to come off. Since it's unhinged to the body of the camera (unlike the competition), the plastic is engineered to be eventually lost.

3.) Cover handle creaks. All E550 cameras I tried has this creak on the handle when you gripped it. The plastic obviously is not glued on proficiently. I hope on future cameras they use a solid well constructed rubber grip like Kodak for instance.

4.) Uses ULTRA expensive xD cards. One shouldn't be buying such a camera if they don't fully intend to be using the FULL 6MP (or 12 MP interpolated) for pictures. Otherwise save your money and get a 4 or 3MP camera! Since 6MP picture files are large, you need substantial memory size (not to mention a good sized hard drive!). A 512mb memory card is a good STARTING point. In this regard, xD cards from Fuji or Olympus cameras cost 2-3x as much as the nearly universal SD or Compact Flash cards. The pice difference is SUBSTANTIAL enough to make this camera a deal breaker. For instance 1GB of Compact flash memory is $220+ cheaper than 1GB of xD!....That's enough memoy to upgrade one's camera to a markedly better level!


Now the picture quality dings:
1.) No autofocus lamp for dim light pics. The lack of the lamp causes the camera to take blurry and wrongly exposed pictures. A AF lamp (like what other competitors have), will solve much of this problem. The much more expensive brother F810 has the lamp, but it should be included on this model.
2.) Pictures has purple finging. While smaller amounts of fringing was shown in high contrast outdoor pictures than Canon, for instance, the E550 still had more consistent fringing from pic to pic. In other words, most of my outdoor pics had fringing--more than even Canon. Though, when Canon shows the fringe on a picture, it's much more egregious and noticeable on a 4x6".
3.) Many outdoor pics were overexposed on high contrast scenes. The effect caused branches, architecture, for instance, to be bleached out or whited out......While many compacts outside the digital SLR have this problem, this camera had a higher than average bleaching. So bad on some pics, as to be deleted! The preview LCD won't be of use as it's too small to capture all the bleaching going on. This bleavhing problem was much worse than the fringing. The fringing is much more forgiveable since it's smaller than the HUGE bleaching going on.
4.) Pictures such as grass shots are blurrier or muddier than competing 6MP cameras. The Fuji CCD interpolates data differently thus adding detail in a manner that doesn't contribute to better detail. The Fuji CCDs are very controversial in this regard among the pros.
5.) Flash takes 5-9 seconds to recharge from picture to picture!! This is absolutely horrendous perfromance compared to other cameras! By the time your flash is recharged, the picture taking opportunity is usually lost.

Camera PROS:
1.) Great specs for it's pricepoint! Many manual controls for the serious amateur.
2.) Good video.
3.) Glad they use AA's instead of expensive proprietary Li-Ion.
4.) Snappy start-up, zooming, and scrolling through pictures in memory. One of the best out there in this regard. Well done!
5.) Small size.
6.) No lens covers to fuss with.
7.) Lens starts at 32.5mm! GREAT JOB! Most small digicams start at 38mm which is abyssmal for close indoor or room shots. 32mm is a good repectable widezoom that I hope the rest of the industry will take heed!
8.) Good 4x zoom. Better range than most 3x zoom cameras.
9.) Good, snappy Fuji colors on pics!

All in all, this is a solid camera that will appeal to many on a budget. I'm a serious enthusiast picture taker, so I will be overly critical with any camera under $1000. I think Fuji has a near budget classic on their hands if they take my suggestions to heart and make required changes.

For me, the flimsy flash, creaky handle/construction, expensive xD cards, and bleaching/fringing in pictures is enough to supercede a purchase. If these issues aren't important to you, then you should be very happy with this camera. All in all, one of the better cameras in its pricepoint.

Rating:
Summary: Great Camera
Review: This camera is awesome. The start up and shut down time is extremely fast as is the auto shutter speed. What's great about it is that you can choose from 10 different shooting modes that allow great versatility to adapt to just about any situation. Lots of people say that the buttons are shallow and difficult to push but they seem fine to me. Another good feature is that you can view a histogram of the image that displays information about the individual frame. You can also choose how many megapixels that you want with the special Fujifilm button. The zoom is great too with 4X optical. It also zooms even if you look through the optical viewfinder, which I might add is a bit small. The LCD screen is also satisfyingly large at 2.0 inches. I highly recommend this camera for the digital camera enthusiast that wants a camera a few steps higher than a point-and-shoot, with optional advanced features.

Rating:
Summary: Not good in night mode
Review: This Fuji DC is fantastic! Especially for the fast power on (no more than 3 seconds). But the night version is horrible. I took this camera to a concert, and shot at least 30 pics in night mode. But only got one clear pic. Of course the flash light is powerful, but it useless. Every photo came with double or triple edges even with flash on. I have to say I'm so disappointed with that. Besides, the anti-shake mode is poor and the xD memory card is too expensive.
I have to return this camera for sure.

Rating:
Summary: Video playback - poor sound
Review: This is a neat little camera for the price, rebate considered. The video playback is quite acceptable but the audio has a "bacon frying" noise in the background. I'm extremely disappointed with this defect. Anyone else out there hear the noise? Even has noise on playback if you don't record any sound.

Rating:
Summary: Very happy with this camera
Review: This is my first digital camera and I almost went out of my mind researching them. B&H in New York had a good price on this, and the SONY PSC d150 (a 7mp cam) I ended up choosing the Fuji for the rebate and the larger and brighter rear screen, which I realized made a difference in the fun factor. The SONY was probably built a little sturdier, but the body felt too small and the small rear screen was a little annoying.

I LOVE this camera. It was pretty easy to figure out, even though I'm still learning. Within the first hour of use I took a fabulous photo of an amaryllis, which I blew up to 8x10, and it looks professional. The pictures are extremely easy to view after taking as well. A few of the close up shots of my dog came out not in total focus, but for now I'll blame that on me not using the portrait mode - especially since my friend with a SONY PSC D-100 has much worse focus problems than I do.

I take photos at 6mp. The detail is stunning. I was satisfied with the video too, except for a weak speaker.

Negatives - 1. I've already lost the little plastic cover to the side of the thing. Why isn't is permanently on there? The battery section is also cheaply built. 2. Some people don't like the fact that you have to pop up the flash yourself. I actually like this, because I have always had a hard time supressing the flash on my SLR. This is a matter of personal preference, I like this feature. 3. The flash takes a long time to recharge, and if you are going to take lots of flash pix keep a set of extra batteries handy because it eats them. 4. There is no low light focus beam -- this hasn't bothered me yet, but I guarantee it will at some point. 5. I totally hate the fuji picture viewer software. It doesn't download well. Stick to Adobe photo shop or Microsoft Picture It and you'll be less frustrated.

These negatives are rather minor, and unless you spend a lot more money you will always have something about a digital camera that bugs you. The pictures from this camera are just fabulous, and anyone can create a great photo with ease. That's the most important thing to me. I have become a total photo bug in 3 days!

After the rebate I paid $280 for this camera. It was a real bargain, and I will certainly be able to use this camera for years without upgrading.

Unless you are a person who will hate to pop up the flash yourself, and you can't stand a little long flash recycle time, I don't see how you would be disappointed with this camera overall.